It’s another long day at City Hall as your City Council kicks off it’s Works Session at 1:00pm, followed by a 6:30pm Regular Session. It’s a packed agenda, so go here to see the entire list of topics. Here are some items of interest on today’s schedule of discussions and decisions:
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
We’ll continue our discussion and review of the final draft of the Comprehensive Plan. If you haven’t yet taken a look at the latest document, go here to read it and learn more.
DOWNTOWN PARKING CHANGES (or “Back it Up, Back it In”)
You might recall last February the council made the decision to make “back-in” parking a part of the Hickory Street redesign. Click here for a great refresher on the entire project, including concept designs and several slides on the topic of parking options in downtown Denton. The benefits of back-in parking include a great number of parking spaces along the street, easier and safer return back on the street for car drivers, and greater protection for pedestrians and cyclists, a population that is already plentiful in this area. As construction has already headed in this direction and spots will soon become available, we are being asked to put back-in parking as part of our downtown parking ordinance. While we are at it, we’ll be cleaning up some language relating to compact cars to better be able to enforce our ordinance.
On this note, while there is much construction activity going on down there and it can look uninviting, all the businesses along East Hickory and Industrial remain open for business and many have great deals to bring you in during this construction phase. Already this week I’ve eaten at Andaman’s and Rusty’s for lunch – go give them your business!
SETTING OUR LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
The 84th Texas Legislature is kicking off and we’ll be discussing our legislative agenda, highlighting issues and topics of importance to our city and citizens. We’ll be headed to Austin in February along with representatives from the county, Denton ISD School Board, and Denton Chamber of Commerce to jointly lobby the legislators on behalf of the city’s interests. Go here for a draft copy of our legislative program and chime in on any of these issues or other issues that you think ought to be included.
We have yet to fully elucidate the city’s position on oil and gas development as it relates to this legislative session. No doubt, due to recent events and votes, that topic will be at the center of Denton discussions in Austin, so some of our discussion today will involve hammering that out. I have posted some of my own ideas on how the state might fix some of the issues relating to fracking in this article.
CANVASSING ELECTION RESULTS
The council will officially canvass the results of the November 4 election at tonight’s meeting. If you haven’t yet seen some of my analyses of the November 4 election results, check out the following.
- How Denton Voted on November 4 by Council District
- Did a College Town Ban Fracking?
- The Final Word on Demographics of the Frack Ban Vote
- Early Voting Analysis
SEVERAL ZONING CHANGE ITEMS
There are 6 Public Hearings tonight relating to zoning issues/changes, including changes that impact distance requirements for liquor stores, an SUP for a electrical substation, and an application to turn 1108 Congress into a Denton Historic Landmark.
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at 940-206-5239 or email me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com.